Lazy Monday

This past weekend was so very full, we were glad to have a lazy Monday today to just chill at home & recover.  As usual, we had nothing planned, just a few ideas up my sleeve in case the over-tiredness looked like it could degenerate into fighting.  We started the morning with Middle bringing an armful of books into my bedroom, for me to read with him and Youngest (Eldest was still asleep) - that kind of start to the day is one of my (many) favourite things about Home Ed :).  Then after a very slow 'getting up', after breakfast we decided to make some bread using this recipe that I found online.  The boys particularly loved having a good old bash on the dough, kneading & pummelling it thoroughly!  While we left the dough to prove in the airing cupboard, we watched this video on Youtube, demonstrating the reaction when you mix yeast and sugar with warm water, which they all thought was pretty cool.  Another 'bashing', then we attempted making small cottage rolls and plaited rolls.  Neither set came out looking particularly as planned, but they were all yummy!

For the rest of the morning there was bouncing on the trampoline (PE), feeding the birds (nature- science), playing with Middle's 'Club Penguin' cards, which are like a cross between top trumps and 'rock paper scissors' (maths and strategy), and watching Backyard Science on TV while we had lunch (science - obviously).  I know, eating in front of the TV is widely frowned upon, but it works for us.  They're enjoying themselves and learning, so it's fine by me :)  Oh, and I forgot to mention before - other TV-based learning that the boys have recently stumbled upon: watching a well-known DVD (in this case, 'Yogi Bear') having first selected it to play in a foreign language... they thought it was hilarious watching Yogi and friends speaking in Italian!

This afternoon we went to the Post Office to pick up a parcel, and were delighted to find that it was the tiny caterpillars for our Butterfly Garden, as mentioned in Nature Projects.  We're very excited here now - and can't wait to see the chrysalises form and then split open, revealing new butterflies!  We'll have to be patient though - the whole process takes up to a month apparently...

our itty bitty 'Painted Lady' caterpillars...

The boys played a bit on Maths Whizz (Eldest) & Reading Eggs (Youngest), and then went out in the garden for much of the afternoon, playing all sorts of made-up games on the trampoline, checking in on our baby plants and bug hotel (Middle tells me we have beetles, ants and ladybirds), and completing an obstacle course set up by Eldest for his younger brothers.  And just as I was about to publish this post, Middle came indoors and found the little poetry books that I had strewn (left out on the sofa, as mentioned in Covert Education), and quickly became absorbed in them - coming to read them to me without being asked!

So it's been a good day again - though everyone's still pretty tired & a bit short-tempered.  We're going to go for an easy dinner (pasta - with some homemade pasta sauce that I got out of the freezer this morning: making in bulk can be such a sanity-saver!), then bath and early night.  Happy sigh :)

And by the way, I just had to pass on a comment from another Home Ed Mum on Facebook, regarding encouraging children to persevere with work, as blogged about this weekend... "When ds stopped working on something, I usually tried to determine what the sticking point was -- sometimes it was lack of proper tools for the job, sometimes it was needing some other kind of knowledge first in order to finish it, and sometimes I found that he'd already learned what he was going to learn from the task and it really was time to move on to something else."  I really appreciated her words of experience, & wanted to share them here too.  My concern with Eldest is still that we're dealing with a fear of failure, but actually I think I just need to chill about that too - as he has proved that he can sometimes stick with things that he really cares about - as long as I stay patient and engaged, he can do so too.  It's just another life lesson that we can and will tackle as it comes up.  Yet another benefit of Home Education: parenting and education go hand-in-hand - it just makes it all so much easier and more natural. :)